An Audi emissions cheat device was reportedly found on some luxury models in California by U.S. regulators, potentially widening the scandal that has engulfed parent company Volkswagen.

A "person familiar with the situation" said California Air Resources Board officials found the cheating software on some Audi models that would produce lower CO2 emissions in labs than in regular road use, reported Market Watch.

In June, Volkswagen settled with authorities and owners of 475,000 two-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. for $14.7 billion, wrote Market Watch. Volkswagen is still negotiating a settlement with the owners of 85,000 other three-liter diesel engine vehicles built by Audi.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco approved that settlement last month, believed to be one of the largest consumer settlements in U.S. history, said USA Today. It includes a massive vehicle buyback program and environmental remediation efforts, noted the newspaper.

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said regulators found the software in automatic transmission of the Audis, but it appeared to be different from the one that initially triggered the Volkswagen investigation last year, according to broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Bild am Sonntag said emissions officials discovered that the vehicles emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.

Volkswagen has been under investigation for programming its vehicles to cheat on emissions tests and then for staging an elaborate cover-up starting in early 2014 after tests first cast doubt on what the company called "clean diesel" cars, said The New York Times.

The cover-up lasted more than a year and Volkswagen blamed the cheating on midlevel engineers and managers acting without knowledge of top management, but court documents have put that those allegations in doubt, said the Times.